Wisconsin man gets 3 years for bomb threat against then-Gov. Scott Walker
A Wisconsin man who made a 2018 bomb threat that prompted a search of then-Gov. Scott Walker’s office in the state Capitol has been sentenced to three years in prison and two years of extended supervision, the state Department of Justice announced on Friday. WISCONSIN DOJ SUED BY LOBBYING GROUP OVER PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST Terrance Grissom, 53, was already serving time for making other threats against officials when he sent a letter in 2018 to the Dane County District Attorney’s Office saying that there was a bomb in Walker’s office that would kill the governor at the push of a button. Capitol Police evacuated the office and searched it but did not find any explosives. Grissom pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge of making a bomb threat and was sentenced on Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. Adam Welch, the public defender listed as Grissom’s attorney, did not immediately respond to an email sent Friday seeking comment. “Those who make criminal threats to harm others must be held accountable,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement. “Bomb scares are serious offenses, and I’m thankful to everyone involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”
Appeals court refuses Louisiana’s plea to reconsider House map ruling
A federal appeals court refused Friday to reconsider its ruling giving the Louisiana Legislature until Jan. 15 to enact a new congressional map after a lower court found that the current political boundaries dilute the power of the state’s Black voters. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by Louisiana’s Republican secretary of state and other state officials to have a larger set of judges rehear the Nov. 10 decision by a three-judge panel. That panel said if the Legislature does not pass a new map by mid-January, then the lower court should conduct a trial and “decide on a plan for the 2024 elections.” NORTHERN LOUISIANA DISTRICT JUDGE DIES AFTER UNSPECIFIED ILLNESS The political tug-of-war and legal battle over Louisiana’s GOP-drawn congressional map has been going on for more than a year and a half. Louisiana is among states still wrangling over congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that Alabama had violated the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana’s current map, which was used in the November congressional election, has white majorities in five of six districts — despite Black people accounting for one-third of the state’s population. Republicans, who dominate Louisiana’s Legislature, say that the map is fair. They argue that Black populations in the state are too dispersed to be united into a second majority Black district. Democrats argue that the map discriminates against Black voters and that there should be two majority-minority districts. Currently, five of the six districts are held by Republicans. Another mostly Black district could deliver a second congressional seat to Democrats. Louisiana officials cited a recent decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in their petition for a new hearing before the 5th Circuit. In a 2-1 decision last month, the 8th Circuit said private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the Voting Rights Act. The decision, which contradicted decades of precedent, could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.
US ambassador to China doesn’t ‘feel optimistic’ about future relations between countries
The U.S. ambassador to China on Friday said he isn’t “optimistic” about the future of U.S.-Chinese relations. “I don’t feel optimistic about the future of U.S.-China relations. I feel that we need to see how things develop. We had a very good, productive meeting in California, can we now sustain that engagement? Can we sustain our commitments to each other,” Nicholas Burns explained in a Brookings Institution question and answer session, referring to President Biden’s meeting last month with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco. He added that he’d lived through the “roller coaster” of China cutting off communications then reinstating them. “So, I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic, I’m careful, maybe realistic,” he added. “Hopeful. But hopeful’s different than being optimistic.” HONG KONG PUTS BOUNTIES ON PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS, INCLUDING AMERICAN CITIZEN, UNDER CHINA IMPOSED LAW Earlier at the event, Burns called China the United States’ most consequential relationship for the next couple of decades. “We’re the two leading economies in the world and will be into the 2030s and 2040s,” he said. “We’re the two most powerful militaries in the world and certainly will be for the next two decades. We’re the two countries with the widest global reach if you think about the economic, societal, political, strategic breadth that most countries have and we’re vying for global power as well as regional power.” Earlier this week, while speaking with the Council on Foreign Relations, Burns said, “We’re not in a state of good relations” but he said the administration been able to “reconnect the two governments.” XI JINPING ARRIVES IN VIETNAM AS AS CHINA COURTS LEADERSHIP FOR ALLIANCE Burns said Friday he believes there’s a “high degree of bipartisanship” among the left and right on the threat of China, who he said “wants to become the strongest power in the Indo-Pacific. I think that’s irrefutable. That’s their goal.” While speaking with the Council on Foreign Relations this week, he said the administration had defended former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to visit Taiwan in 2022. “We felt it was important that we defend her right as a co-equal head of a branch of the U.S. government, but that really sent – the aftermath sent the relationship [with China] into a tailspin.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He added that as of this spring and following the Chinese spy balloon incident in February, “we really had very few contacts of a senior nature between the United States and China.”
DeSantis argues Trump ‘will say it’s stolen, no matter what’ if former president loses in Iowa or NH
CONCORD, N.H. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he expects Donald Trump to try and “delegitimize” the election results if the former president ends up losing either the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary. “If Trump loses, he will say it’s stolen no matter what. Absolutely. He will try to delegitimize the results,” DeSantis told reporters on Friday during a question and answer session after holding a town hall in New Hampshire’s capital city. DeSantis noted that Trump “did that against Ted Cruz in 2016,” as he referred to Trump’s tweet after narrowly losing the caucuses to the firebrand conservative senator from Texas that “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it.” The former president for three years has repeatedly made unproven claims that his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to a “rigged” election and “massive voter fraud.” DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL 99 OF IOWA’S COUNTIES — BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP? And Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia — on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. DeSantis argued that, “I don’t think people are going to buy it. Trump remains the commanding front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, as he makes his third straight White House run. DeSantis is currently a very distant second to Trump in the latest polls in Iowa, where the Jan. 15 caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar. And in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and votes second after Iowa on Jan. 23, DeSantis is in fourth place, far behind Trump and also trailing former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, as well as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is making his second White House bid. TRUMP HOLDS A MASSIVE LEAD IN THE POLLS WITH FIVE WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE IOWA CAUCUSES As the first votes in the race for the Republican nomination draw closer, DeSantis has been turning up the volume on his criticism of Trump. In his conversation with the crowd at his town hall, and in answering reporter questions, he repeatedly jabbed at Trump for failing to follow through on campaign promises, for being too old to serve again as president, and for skipping out on debating his rivals for the Republican nomination. “He’s promising the same things he did in ’16 that he didn’t deliver. And now he’s just running on the same stuff again,” he argued. “You know, we didn’t get a wall. We didn’t get the swamp drained. He said he was going to go after Hillary [Clinton] and then let her off the hook two weeks after the election.” Speaking with reporters, DeSantis asked,”’Why won’t he [Trump] debate. Why not?’ And I do think he would not perform the way they remember the Trump from 2015 and ’16. I think that’s the real reason he’s not debating.” And the governor argued that Trump is “a different guy now and I think he owes it to actually show up and answer questions.” WAS THE REAL WINNER SO FAR IN THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES THE GUY WHO DIDN’T SHOW UP? DeSantis also targeted Trump for not engaging with voters. “When is the last time he stood on a stage and just took questions from voters?” DeSantis asked. “Has he done that at any point in this campaign? He certainly hasn’t done it on a debate stage. How often has he been willing to go and really answer the tough questions… people want to see you earn it.” Asked for a response, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung argued in a statement to Fox News that, “Ron DeSantis is acting out on his Lincoln Project fantasies and doing his best impression of a Never Trumper by reciting Democrat talking points peddled by Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign.” And Cheung charged that “when Ron’s political career is finished in a few weeks, he can start moonlighting as a Democrat surrogate because he’s showing everyone his true colors.” The Lincoln Project is a political action committee formed four years ago by Republicans and former members of the GOP who oppose Trump. DeSantis returned to New Hampshire three days after popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed Haley in the state’s Republican presidential primary. ‘WE’RE ALL IN’ – SUNUNU BACKS HALEY IN MAJOR 2024 ENDORSEMENT Sununu, a vocal GOP critic of Trump, had said for weeks that he was deciding between Haley, Christie and DeSantis. DeSantis told Fox News that Sununu’s backing of Haley wouldn’t change his campaign strategy in the Granite State, saying “I wasn’t necessarily expecting that.” “Chris is great, a great campaigner and all that,” DeSantis added arguing that “ultimately, Nikki Haley is an establishment candidate. That does not do well in these Republican primaries. That is starting to become more and more apparent to voters as she’s gotten more attention.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
New Orioles stadium lease heading to a vote next week, Maryland Gov. Moore says
A long-term agreement between the Baltimore Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority for a new lease at Camden Yards is moving forward for a vote by state officials next week, Gov. Wes Moore and the team have confirmed. The agreement is slated to go before the Maryland Stadium Authority on Monday in Baltimore at the warehouse next to the ballpark. The state’s Board of Public Works, a three-member board chaired by the governor, also is scheduled to meet there later that day. In a statement, Moore said the agreement “embodies the three core principles I laid out at the beginning of this process: this is a long term deal that will keep baseball in Baltimore for all to enjoy, that puts all Maryland taxpayers at the top of mind, and that benefits the entire City of Baltimore.” MARYLAND GOV. MOORE CALLS ORIOLES LEASE DEAL ‘IMMINENT’ “I know for many this process has been long, and the team that worked on securing this deal has done so diligently with the best interests of the taxpayer in mind,” the governor said. “The Orioles are a treasured part of the Baltimore community and I know I speak for all Marylanders when I say we are so excited to see the impact they will make on the City of Baltimore and across the state for years to come.” The Orioles confirmed the agreement in a statement. “We appreciate the hard work that has gone into bringing this agreement down to the finish line, and we’re grateful to the Maryland Stadium Authority, the Governor’s team, and, of course, everyone here at the Orioles organization,” the team said. The Orioles’ lease at Camden Yards, which is owned by the state of Maryland, expires at the end of the year. In September, the team dramatically announced a new 30-year deal to stay at the ballpark — a message to that effect appeared on the scoreboard in the middle of a game the night the team clinched the AL East. The next day, the governor’s office released details of a memorandum of understanding involving Moore, the team and the Maryland Stadium Authority. The September agreement included a 99-year development rights agreement for areas surrounding the ballpark, including the warehouse and Camden Station. That was a sticking point last week for Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, whose district includes the stadium, and the Moore administration said it would work to address those concerns before moving forward. An agenda on the stadium authority’s website says the panel will consider a contract that extends the existing lease and includes time to create a development plan. The board also will consider a draft agreement to memorialize the terms and conditions of a 30-year lease agreement. Last year, the state increased bond authorization for M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, and Camden Yards. The measure allowed borrowing of up to $600 million for each stadium.
New Mexico taps agency veteran as new Indian Affairs secretary
The former pueblo leader nominated by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to head the state’s Indian Affairs Department is leaving that post less than a year into the job to take on a new role as a policy adviser to the governor. James Mountain’s new role as senior policy adviser for tribal affairs was confirmed Friday by the governor’s office in a statement. Josett Monette will take the reins of the Indian Affairs Department, after serving previously in roles as deputy director and general counsel at the agency. Monette is affiliated with the North Dakota-based Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa. NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT TO DECIDE FATE OF LOCAL ABORTION RESTRICTIONS Mountain’s appointment in February as cabinet secretary immediately fueled anger among Native American advocates who worked to address violence and missing persons cases within their communities. They pointed to sexual assault charges against Mountain, saying he wasn’t the right person to lead the state agency. Lujan Grisham’s office pointed out that charges against Mountain were dismissed in 2010 after prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence to go to trial, and it urged those raising concerns about his past to “respect the judicial process and acknowledge the results.” The governor also had highlighted Mountain’s history as a leader at San Ildefonso Pueblo and his expertise in state and tribal relations, as she pushed for a Senate committee to hold a confirmation hearing so Mountain could be vetted like other cabinet members. But the governor’s office never forwarded his nomination to the committee for consideration — and did not answered questions about whether it sought input from Native American communities when choosing Mountain as a successor for Lynn Trujillo, who stepped down as secretary in November 2022 before taking a job with the U.S. Interior Department. In March, protesters gathered at the state capitol to call for greater accountability in the system for vetting state-appointed positions that serve Indigenous communities. Mountain never directly addressed the concerns about his nomination. In a letter to state lawmakers, his daughter, Leah Mountain, described him as a devoted father who instilled cultural identity, confidence and aspiration in her after her mother left. She said the allegations against him are false. Mountain served as governor at San Ildefonso Pueblo from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2015 to 2017. He oversaw the completion of the Aamodt Water Settlement, concerning the pueblo’s water rights, and the Indian Land Claims Settlement in 2006. He also ran his own state-tribal affairs consulting firm in recent years.
Los Angeles DA Gascón promotes former public defender who called LAPD ‘barbarians’ and an ‘occupying army’
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has promoted a former public defender to his chief of staff who has called the Los Angeles Police Department “barbarians.” Tiffiny Blacknell, who has served in the district attorney’s office as a grade 4 prosecutor, special advisor, and chief of communications, was promoted to be Gascón’s chief of staff on Friday, multiple sources tell Fox News. Her new role will begin Jan. 16. During the protests following George Floyd’s death, Blacknell made a post on X referring to the Los Angeles Police Department as “barbarians,” and “an occupying army,” and used the “#DefundPolice” hashtag. In a previous post on X, she also said that “prison is obsolete,” calling on Americans to “reimagine America without it.” LA DA GASCÓN HIRES LAWYER WHO CALLED LAPD ‘BARBARIANS,’ SAID PRISONS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED “Angela Davis said it years ago. Prisons disappear problems, they don’t solve them,” she wrote. “We’ve been warehousing people for a generation it’s time to free America.” Blacknell has also posted a picture of herself wearing a shirt which read, “the police are trained to kill us.” She faced heavy criticism in 2020, after allegedly going behind the backs of the prosecutor and the victim’s family in a gang murder case to offer a “sweetheart” plea deal. LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY GEORGE GASCON CREATING RACIAL JUSTICE ACT SECTION The former prosecutor also posted during a series of looting in May 2020, that she was a looter during the 1992 Rodney King riots. “I was a “looter” in 1992. I was 15. I was furious, sad and scared. I had no way to process my emotions about the murder of Latasha Harlins or the beating of Rodney King. So we went out and we watched our city burn. And when the opportunity arose, we took some s–t,” Blacknell wrote. “So please don’t come on my page complaining about protestors or looters. Don’t text me SHIT about the Whole Foods in West Hollywood and your beloved Santa Monica. My whole community was leveled. Cry me a river! NORDSTROMS WILL BE OK. All this respectability by Black folks and complaining by Westside white liberals is maddening.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office for comment.
Biden admin finalizes most restrictive offshore oil drilling plan in US history
The Biden administration on Friday finalized a plan to dramatically curb the number of offshore oil and gas lease sales over the next five years as it continues to aggressively push green energy development. The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program schedules just three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029, marking the fewest number of sales ever included in such a plan, which the agency is mandated to issue periodically. According to the DOI, holding the sales will enable future offshore wind leases under an Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provision that tethers the two. “President Biden’s approach to severely limit leasing significantly curtails access to a critical national asset,” Erik Milito, the president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents both traditional and renewable offshore energy producers, said in a statement Friday. “The White House simply ignores energy realities by once again limiting U.S. energy production opportunities.” “With global demand at record levels and continuing to rise, regressive policies will harm Americans of all walks of life by putting upward pressure on prices at the pump, destroying good-paying jobs that form the fabric of Gulf Coast communities, and relinquishing geopolitical advantages of energy production to countries like Russia, Iran and China,” he continued. ALASKAN NATIVE AMERICANS UNLEASH ON BIDEN ADMIN’S CLIMATE AGENDA: ‘COMMUNITIES AND CULTURE ARE AT RISK’ Milito added that policies limiting offshore production in the U.S. only serve to force greater reliance on energy imports, including from nations with higher emissions and worse environmental standards. “This jeopardizes our energy security, and economic prosperity, and undermines our efforts to reduce emissions and combat climate change — goals purportedly championed by the current administration,” he said. OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS PERMITTING PLUMMETS TO 2-DECADE LOW UNDER BIDEN Under the plan, the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold the three sales of parcels in the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, 2027 and 2029. It also rules out any leasing off the Alaskan coast, and in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in another departure from previous plans. The administration, meanwhile, signaled that it could have pursued an even more restrictive five-year program if not for the IRA. That legislation — Democrats’ $739 billion climate and tax package signed by President Biden in 2022 — ties new offshore wind energy leases to new oil and gas leases, meaning the former could be threatened without consistent fossil fuel leasing. Issuing a program with less than three sales — a possibility the DOI floated last year to the dismay of energy industry groups — may have jeopardized Biden’s plan to ensure the U.S. develops 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The nation currently has just two tiny pilot projects, one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other off Virginia’s coast, but the DOI has permitted several large-scale facilities since 2021 that are slated to come online in coming years. APPEALS COURT FORCES BIDEN ADMIN TO HOLD OFFSHORE OIL LEASE SALE WITHOUT ECO RESTRICTIONS “It’s now clear without a shadow of a doubt that without the IRA, this Administration would have ended federal oil and gas development completely,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said in September after the DOI proposed the plan finalized Friday. “But instead of embracing the all-of-the-above energy bill that was signed into law, this Administration has once again decided to put their radical political agenda over American energy security, and the American people will pay the price,” Manchin, who was a lead author of the IRA last year, continued. “Granting the bare minimum of oil and gas leases will result in a minimum of renewables leases as well because the IRA tied the two together. You can’t have one without the other.” Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal government is required to issue plans every five years laying out prospective offshore oil and gas lease sales. The most recent plan, which was implemented in 2017, expired in June 2022. The persistent delay in issuing a replacement plan, though, represented a departure from precedent set by both Republican and Democratic administrations, which have historically finalized replacements immediately after previous plans expired. The most recent two plans, both formulated under the Obama administration, included more than 10 offshore oil and gas lease sales each. And the Trump administration sought to hold a total of 47 lease sales across the Atlantic region, the Pacific region and the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coasts between 2022 and 2027.
What next for Ukraine’s EU membership application?
EU votes to start membership talks, but block billions in aid funding. Mixed messages are being sent from Brussels to Kyiv. The European Union votes to advance accession talks for Ukraine, but Hungary blocks billions of dollars in aid money. Money from the US to Kyiv is also being held up, as Republicans push for aid to be linked to extra funds to secure the US-Mexico border. It comes as winter settles on the battlefield, and the Ukrainian counteroffensive which stoked high hopes in spring has ground to a halt. Where does that leave the war effort – and Ukraine’s hopes for EU membership? Presenter: Sohail Rahman Guests: Mariia Zolkina – Head of regional security and conflict studies at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation think tank. Donnacha O’ Beachain – Professor of Iinternational relations at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. Ben Aris – Founder and editor-in-chief of bne IntelliNews. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli army says it mistakenly killed three captives held in Gaza
The captives were killed during combat with Palestinian fighters after they were erroneously identified as a threat. The Israeli army has killed three captives held by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza after “mistakenly” identifying them as a threat, according to Israeli military officials. The military said on Friday that the captives were killed during combat with Palestinian groups in Gaza and expressed its condolences to the families while saying there would be “full transparency” in the investigation into the incident, which is “under review”. “During combat in Shujayea, the [Israeli army] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat. As a result, the troops fired toward them and they were killed,” the army said in a statement. “The [Israeli army] began reviewing the incident immediately … Immediate lessons from the event have been learned, which have been passed on to all [Israeli army] troops in the field,” it added, expressing “deep remorse over the tragic incident”. The hostages were identified as three young men who had been abducted from Israeli communities during the Hamas attack on October 7 – 28-year-old Yotam Haim, 25-year-old Samer Al-Talalka and 26-year-old Alon Shamriz. The army’s chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said Israeli troops found the hostages and erroneously identified them as a threat. He said it was believed that the three had either fled their captors or been abandoned. Israeli troops have engaged in fierce battles with Palestinian fighters in the area in recent days. About 250 captives were taken into Gaza by Palestinian groups during the October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, most of them women and children. Thousands more are missing and trapped beneath the rubble. The Israeli government has repeatedly stated that bringing home all of the hostages is one of its principal aims in the war. To date, 110 of the captives have been freed, mostly during a seven-day truce last month in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Israel has also repatriated eight bodies, including on Friday those of dual Israeli-French national Elia Toledano, 28, abducted from an electronic music festival, and two 19-year-old soldiers. The deaths were announced as US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the US and Israel were discussing a timetable for scaling back the offensive against Hamas, even though they agree the overall fight will take months. Sullivan also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the besieged enclave’s postwar future. US President Joe Biden’s administration has expressed unease over Israel’s failure to reduce civilian casualties and its plans for the future of Gaza, but the White House continues to offer wholehearted support for Israel with weapons shipments and diplomatic backing. Israeli air raids and shelling continued Friday, including in the southern city of Rafah, part of the shrinking areas of tiny, densely populated Gaza to which Palestinian civilians had been told by Israel to evacuate. Adblock test (Why?)